Hideki Matsui May Swing More Than a Big Bat at the Big A

​Gustavo muses about John Lackey's departure from the Angels here. The post ends with a dig about inbound Angel Hideki Matsui, whose future tenure our Winter Mexican League All-Star compares to that of Mets-and-Expo-great-turned-Halo-bust Hubie Brooks. But 'Stavo is forgetting that "Godzilla," the MVP of the last World Series, is bringing more than power from the left side and an ironman work ethic to Anaheim.

Did somebody say "55,000-tape porn collection"?In May, before it was a lock the Yankees would make the playoffs let alone win the rings, several sports blogs dug up a 2003 Time magazine "Asian Heroes" profile that mentioned Matsui's extensive skin-flick cache.

Indeed, his only eccentricity, if it can be called that, is his extensive private library of adult videos. His refreshing ability to laugh self-deprecatingly about his porno
collection, reporters say, is one reason why fans and even nonfans have
taken to him so much.

The closest sushi restaurant to my house used to have hanging a framed, autographed photo of Ichiro Suzuki. When I asked a waitress about it one day, she explained in broken English that a friend of Suzuki's recommended the joint to him, the 2001 American League MVP came by during a road trip and had become a regular since.

The Seattle Mariner multi-millionaire had thus become a one-man economic booster shot for this tiny spot. So, no matter how Matsui plays at the Big A, his arrival may at least pump OC porn shops.

Goodbye, MILFs, cheerleaders and other assorted fetish displays, hello covers with Japanese girls in school uniforms!